The Return Pt 2
by invisibleinnocence
Summary: Episode two of Season 3. Now a Legionnaire again, Brainiac 5 is adjusting to life in the Legion, but it's harder said than done. Will Brainy be able to tough it out or run away again? Wow. Worst summary ever...sounds like a movie trailer... lalalala...la
1. Dreaming

**Greetings Readers! _Hello, rabid fan fiction readers._ For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, this is the second episode of LoSH Season 3! _And Pandora's really supposed to be studying for a Biology final right now._ (ignoring Luke) This episode shouldn't be as nearly as long as The Return...well...I guess it's about the same length. The chapters are just longer..._ GET STUDYING, WOMAN!_ SHADDUP! Enjoy episode two: The Return Pt. 2! (Don't expect an update soon. Blame school. -_-)**

_

* * *

Meow._

Brainiac 5 looked up at the fluffy, grey kitten that was stuck in a tree, and back down at the little five-year old girl, "This was your urgent emergency?"

"I said it was an urgent _pet_ emergency!" She put her hands on her hips and stomped her foot on the ground. Brainy sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He should have known not to take Sun Boy seriously. "Please get Figaro!"

Brainy looked up at the kitten and sighed, "Here, Figaro..." he called, putting out his arms.

The girl looked at Brainiac 5 like he was stupid, "Figaro can't jump." Brainy took a few steps back to take a leap to fly, but before he could get even a foot off the ground, the girl pulled him down. "He's scared of flying, too."

Brainy's patience was running thin. "Then what am I supposed to do?"

The girl shrugged, twirling a brunette pigtail. "You could climb up the tree."

Brainy looked up at the kitten once more. He _really_ hated cats. According to his calculations, climbing up that height, and falling at the top could result in a broken bone, maybe two. Plus, in the case that he did lose his grip, flying might result in a few scratches, bites, and other various kitten related injuries. _Who knows if the thing has had its Class 5 Rabies shot yet anyway?_ He turned to the girl. "Listen, I _seriously_ think this is a job for the fire department, maybe a Substitute." _Well, technically, I am a Substitute for the time being, since Cos put me on suspension for blowing up the lab..._ The girl started to form tears in her eyes, making her lower lip tremble. Brainy sighed in defeat. A kitten stuck in a tree was hard enough, he didn't need a crying five-year-old on his hands as well. He put a hand on her shoulder and put on a smile, trying to make it look comforting, "I'll get the cat, Figaro, was it?" The girl nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes as Brainy started to make his way up the tree.

* * *

Sun Boy and Nemesis Kid stood by the computer, holding back snickers as Brainiac 5 trudged through the control room, a complete mess. The whole, "Climbing the Tree" plan...well, didn't go as planned. Brainy was sure he possibly jammed one of his fingers in the process of catching his fall along with the collection of kitten injuries. According to the girl, "Falling is just like flying!"

The "getting attacked by fangirls" thing didn't help either. Brainiac 5 concluded that he now hated cats, Cosmic Boy, and fangirls.

"Have a nice _trip_, Brain Drain?" Sun Boy sneered.

Brainy glared at them, ever since he came back, Sun Boy, Nemesis Kid and Colossal Boy had been making comments, and, on the occasion, attacking him. "What? Cat got your tongue?" Nemesis Kid burst into a fit of laughter.

Triplicate Girl walked up and whacked them both on the head with a clipboard, "Oh, will youshut up?" She put a smile on for Brainy, "Nice to see you're back!" Then she noticed the overall beat-up look of him, Triplicate Girl winced, "You should get to sick bay and get those checked out."

Brainy shrugged, "It's fine really, kind of used to pain... I really need to talk to Cosmic Boy."

Triplicate Girl looked at her clipboard, "Oh, look at that! He just so happens to be in sick bay!"

"Really?"

"Yes, now come on, I can fix you up while you chat with him," she grabbed Brainy's arm and pulled him out of Sun Boy and Nemesis Kid's teasing range.

* * *

"Brainiac 5, we have had this conversation many times over," Cosmic Boy started, standing over Brainy since Triplicate Girl had forced the latter into a chair so she could vehemently rub antiseptic over his wounds. "Until you have proved you have no intentions of turning to the dark side, I can not let you do real Legion of Superheroes work."

Brainy huffed in frustration, "Cosmic Boy, this is getting ridiculous. I have proven myself countless times. Shouldn't disarming a bomb, stopping an assassination plot, and saving a plush teddy bear from a speeding roller coaster be enough?"

Cosmic Boy gave him a hard stare, "Must we get into this again? I am team leader, so what I say goes. If I think that you are still not stable enough to do official work, then you don't do official work!"

"Then what will prove that I am stable enough? I have my human emotions in control! I've been training with Karate Kid until I pass out! What is going to satisfy you?"

"I don't know, Brainiac 5, but I will when the time comes. As for the human emotions thing, you might want to replay our last Maxis Sim," Cosmic Boy said coldly, and walked out of the room.

The Maxis Sim was created by Cosmic Boy to put Legionnaires under extreme conditions, to train them to expect the worst. Of course, he didn't try it out himself, he put the three, pretty much powerless Legionnaires in it to test it out. These three Legionnaires were none other than Brainiac 5, Shrinking Violet and Chameleon Boy. So as they got their physical and emotional butts kicked, Brainy made the mistake of "wasting" a split second to push Shrinking Violet out of the way of an incoming hunk of metal. According to Cosmic Boy, "She could have perfectly defended herself from it. Your actions were brash and acted purely on emotion. We cannot spare one life at the cost of thousands."

The one thing that kept Brainiac 5 from punching Cos in the face was that he knew Lightning Lad would do it much better in the next sim.

Triplicate Girl put a hand on his shoulder comfortingly, "Just ignore it. He'll come around soon..."

Brainy stood up, "Triplicate Girl, I _have _been ignoring it, for a whole month. This is the _exact_ reason why I didn't want to come back to the Legion! I made too many mistakes, so now, when I try to come back, I can't do anything. Everyone knows that if I didn't get hurt, I wouldn't be here right now and the truth is, I don't know if I'm even meant to be a superhero anymore!" The one thing that had been bottled up inside, had finally come out.

* * *

_"It is your destiny to bring order to the galaxy, to walk in my footsteps, and halt the chaos in the universe," Brainiac's voice rang. Brainiac 5, still in his android form, pounded on the wall of the tiny cell he was in. Everything was dark, he couldn't see, only hear that maleficent voice._

_ "I'll never be like you! You're the one who brings chaos, not order! I make it my life's work not to live in your legacy!" he shouted, feeling helpless and scared, reliving his feelings of the actual event. "Get out of my head!"_

_ "Stop being childish, Brainiac 5, you cannot escape this, as destiny is a thing that you cannot avoid."_

_ "My destiny isn't to be a monster!"_

_ "Oh, really?" Brainiac chuckled. "Then why don't you watch this..."_

_ Flashes of Brainy's memory played around him. Brainiac taking over, hurting his friends, destroying planets, taking over Colu, destroying his teammates. All under Brainiac's sadistic laugh as Brainy broke down and-_

"AH!" Brainiac 5 snapped up, drenched in a cold sweat, and breathing hard. _It was just a dream...only a dream_ he thought. Brainy noted this post traumatic stress maybe getting serious, but he could only imagine how humiliating it would be to come crying to his friends about nightmares. No. This was something he could deal- "VI!" Brainy jumped at the sight of his sleep barren friend.

The gothic superhero lazily rubbed an eye, "You're having nightmares again," she said, concern in her voice.

"No, I am not."

"There's nothing wrong with it, Brainy. It's a purely human thing."

Brainy gripped the sheets on his bed, "So...why are you here?"

"Because I was worried about you."

"But you just said that nightmares were perfectly human."

"I never said it was a good thing, though. Brainy, if you don't talk about what's bothering you, you're never going to get enough sleep to be healthy."

"It's nothing, Vi, really."

Shrinking Violet grabbed Brainy's shoulders, giving him a deadly looking glare, "Stop being ignorant, Brainy, if anyone can tell something's wrong with you, it would be me. I know something is going on in that big head of yours, and it's not a good thing."

Brainiac 5 flinched, he had never seen Shrinking Violet get so...scary before, though it wasn't a surprising fact that she could. He gulped, "It's Brainiac. I keep having nightmares about Brainiac and when he took over. All my mistakes being shoved back in my face again."

Shrinking Violet pulled him out of bed, "I'm taking you to Saturn Girl."

"No, no, no. This is no situation to go bothering Saturn Girl in the middle of the night," Brainy dug his bare heels into the rug on the floor.

The tiny goth proved to be stronger, "Nope, I believe this is a good reason to wake her up."

* * *

Coluan and Imskan stood at the door to Saturn Girl's room. Shrinking Violet had Brainy's arm pressed tight against the front of her body so he couldn't run away. She knocked at the door again, "Saturn Girl?"

The door opened, revealing the telepath leaning tiredly on the doorframe, wearing a light pink nightgown and moderate bed-head, "Yes, Salu?"

"It's about Brainy-" Shrinking Violet pulled her friend closer, "-and nightmares."

Brainiac 5 stumbled a bit at Shrinking Violet's pull, and managed a sheepish smile and a slight wave, "Really, if we're disturbing you Saturn Girl, I can always come back in the morning."

Saturn Girl pulled Brainy in by his t-shirt, "No. People are complaining, it's best we at least started on solving this now. Thank you, SV, you can go back to bed." Shrinking Violet gave a small nod, waving to Brainiac 5 before heading back to her room.

Saturn Girl sat him down on her bed, walking to her nightstand and picking up a hairbrush. "What's been bothering you, Querl?" she asked, pulling the brush through her hair.

"Noth-"

Saturn Girl turned on him, putting the handle of the brush in his face, "Tell me _exactly_ what you told Shrinking Violet."

Brainiac 5 sighed, "I think I'm experiencing some post-traumatic stress from the Brainiac incident." He nervously rubbed his toes together, a habit he started to pick up since he became human.

"It explains the lab accident that happened last week. You haven't been sleeping on a regular basis, have you?" Saturn girl asked.

"..."

"Don't lie, Brainy. There are bags under your eyes, according to the training sims, your usually picture-perfect reflexes have dropped by almost 40%, and well...you blew up the lab."

"But I blow up the lab all the time!" Brainy exclaimed, only to soon realize how stupid of an argument that was. Maybe he was lacking a normal sleep pattern. "...Alright, I've been avoiding sleep, okay? These nightmares terrify me. They're so vivid and real that I forget where I really am."

Saturn Girl paused for a second, absorbing the information. After a moment of silence she bit on her lower lip, "Anything else bothering you?"

Brainy thought for a while, wondering if he should really tell her. "I don't know if I want to be a hero anymore."

"What?"

He sighed, "I don't know...I blurted it out when I was talking to Triplicate Girl, and now that I've said it, I think it's true. Being back in the Legion...doesn't feel right, like I've already had my chance. I left, and maybe it is best that I didn't come back."

"Querl Dox," Saturn Girl put a hand on Brainy's shoulder, "you're the biggest hero I've ever met. Your heart is always in the right place, despite what you do. You put others first, that's why you took the upgrade from Brainiac, right? It was to save your friends, not to become some great evil."

"Yes, but-"

"I know that deep down, you know this is your place. You just need to get past the hard part of it. Sun Boy, Nemesis Kid, and Colossal Boy are always going to be jerks," Saturn Girl smirked slightly at this, "but why should they get in your way? Remember how hard it was when you first started out? You were just a kid! The youngest one here, but you adjusted. It's going to be just like that. Trust me, in a few months, everyone's just going to deal that you're back and there's nothing they can do to change it."

Brainy mulled this over. He didn't see how this was going to solve his nightmare problem, but inside, he did feel a little better. "Thank you, Saturn Girl. Something tells me I needed to hear something like that."

"Anytime, Brainy," Saturn Girl smiled, and gave him a hug, another thing the Coluan teen felt he needed.


	2. Fame

"Okay, Brainy," Chameleon Boy said with a grin. "This is it. You step beyond this curtain and enter the realm of the Legion of Superheroes Fan Club."

Brainy sighed, pulling at his wristguard, "Do I have to?"

"Of course! They've been requesting for you forever, it's only polite to let them talk to you for a bit. Really. I've done these tons of times. It's just a question and answer, sign a few autographs, give handshakes, accept a hug, presents-" Cham wiggled his antennas, "Maybe a kiss from a _very_ fiiine fan..."

Brainy headed out to leave, "This is ridiculous."

Cham darted in front of him, "If you do this I'll take you out for chocolate milkshakes afterwards!"

To Cham's pleasure, Brainy stopped in mid-step. There wasn't a human delicacy that Brainiac 5 discovered he liked more than chocolate milkshakes. The cold, sweet, chocolate drink that sent a rush of energy through his body, increasing his thinking ability ten fold. Certainly a nice pick-up from being on countless amounts of drugs for two months that did nothing but tire him out and make him want to go to sleep, or fangirls. "Alright, I'll stay, but you would be wise to keep your promise," he answered with a smirk.

"Yeah, yeah, I promise," Chameleon Boy tugged at his arm, "Come on! -Wait! No...stay here, I'll introduce you." At that Cham walked through the curtain, causing an eruption of cheers to commence. Brainy leaned towards the curtain in an attempt to hear what Cham was saying. "Good morning, Legion of Superheroes Fan Club! As many of you should know, I am Reep Daggle, or as I am commonly known Chameleon Boy!" More cheers erupted. Cham started talking again after the crowd calmed down, "Now, as I promised I have brought a secret guest with me. I'm sure it's an honor to have them here today, so I would like to give you a big round of applause for-" Cham grabbed Brainy and pulled him through the curtain, "-Querl Dox, a.k.a. Brainiac 5!"

As predicted the cheers reached a climax, which amazed the two Legionnaires, because this session was held in the Senior Center Autotorium., and only held about two hundred people. Chameleon Boy pushed Brainiac 5 to the microphone. The Coluan ran into it, almost toppling it over and causing feedback. He straightened himself and leaned towards the mic and waved awkwardly, "Greetings...uh...well, as Cham said, I'm Brainiac 5...and I don't really know what to do or say here..."

"TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT!" A fangirl screamed.

"...E-excuse me?"

Cham leaned towards Brainy and whispered, "I think they want you to take off your shirt."

"Why?" Brainy whispered back.

"Because it's hot."

"What?"

"Just do it. It'll make them happy."

"Why?"

"Because it's HOT! Now take the shirt off!"

Brainy paused, looking at the fangirls then turning around and taking off his shirt. He turned back around, showing off newly-achieved muscle definition from training with Karate Kid. The three gashes from Tharok's attack had been reduced to pale green scars trailing from his right shoulder to his left hip. The fangirls screamed with pure delight. Brainy winced when a camera flash went off in his eyes. Really, what was the point to this? Some type of fan-service? He put the shirt back on, feeling extremely awkward. "Um...any questions that don't pertain to me undressing?"

A girl raised her hand, "Are you gay?"

Brainy felt his face go red, "I don't have time to question my sexuality, but as far as I know, no. I'm not gay." "He's bisexual," Cham snickered. The fangirls cheered.

Brainy huffed, "Next question."

"The Tomorrow Show said that they were gonna have you on their show! Are you?"

"...Not that I know of..."

"Are you gay for Bouncing Boy?"

"I said I wasn't gay! I'm bisexual, damnit!" Brainiac 5 smacked his head when he realized what he said. But instead of getting angry, he just laughed at his mistake, putting a smile on his face. The fans giggled immaturely as well.

* * *

"I remember my first fan club appearance..." Bouncing Boy chuckled, walking beside Chameleon Boy and Brainiac 5, who were feasting on chocolate milkshakes. The three had met up in center New Metropolis, which was nearby the shopping district. "They ask all the guy Legionnaires to take their shirts off. It's just how it is. We'll see what they rank you on the fan-site."

Brainy stopped in mid-slurp, "There's a fan-site?" he asked clenching the straw between his teeth. How did he not know about all of this?

"Yeah," Chameleon Boy grinned, "They keep track of all our missions, the romance, the drama, the newbies, and on the fangirl side, they rank all the guy Legionnaires from 1 to 100." He flexed his skinny frame, "Currently, I'm ranked number 17. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself."

Suddenly, screams broke out from the front of the pavilion, making the four Legionnaires look in that direction. From the chaos stepped out two figures. One was tall and curvy, clad in leather, and various blasters and guns were buckled to her limbs and waist. She stepped up on the table, looking over the screaming people with gold eyes. Her ink-black hair was pulled back, making her face more intimidating. The shorter figure was crouched down and crawled around the table the woman was standing on. He had a lizard-like appearance, with neon-blue hair, silver, scaly skin, and a matching jumpsuit. Only the whites of his eyes showed and his fangs were yellow. The woman pulled out a gun and shot five times into the air, "Everyone, shut up and get down! We have secured this place. Anyone who tries to be a hero _will_ be killed!" Bouncing Boy, Chameleon Boy and Brainiac 5 hid behind the nearby fountain. "Iris, you know what to do."

A husky laugh echoed through the silent pavilion, "With pleasure." The sound of his claws scraping the cement as he scampered over to a technology store was the only thing heard.

"Should we do anything?" Chameleon Boy whispered.

Brainy clenched his hands, "I'm suspended. I could get in huge trouble with Cosmic Boy, even the Science Police."

"If we did move now, we could end up with dead civilians. We don't even know who these two are or who hired them. It's probably best to just sit back and let them do whatever. We can track them down once we get back to headquarters," Bouncing Boy answered, partly to comfort Brainy and partly to keep Cham from doing something brash. He still hadn't run out of his leadership skills.

After a while, Iris came back out of the store, holding something that looked like a generator and a couple of plasma tubes in his mouth. He crawled over to the woman and dropped the tech into her hands. "Just like you ordered, Killswitch," Iris said with a sly grin.

Killswitch turned to the cowering civilians, pointing her gun at all of them, "Now if I hear anything about us on the police scanners, we will find whoever cracked, and we will kill you." Then she smiled, "Thank you for cooperating," and at that, she and Iris left.

Slowly, the three got up, "Let's go. We have to tell the Legion about this," Bouncing Boy said, and started leading the way towards Headquarters.

* * *

**Yeah, the first part is mainly filler (was listening to "Richman" by 3Oh!3 while writing it...for some reason...(shrugs)), and it's kind of a tip of the hat to all you Brainy-Slash supporters, since I know some slash-supporting readers might read this, and one of the conflicts in this story is Brainy sorting out his still tangled-up emotions. (I'm thinking about having him question if he's gay or not at some point in the season...we'll see...) And oh, mai. We have some OCs. Well, obviously they belong to me, but it's up to you to predict what their motives are. ^-^ I know what they are...but I'm not telling you. Thanks for reading and keep your eyes out for Chapter 3!**


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